Page 31 of Blade's Battle
With a smile, Anna slid past him to the table. She removed the cloth from the crushed muffins. “I forgot the coffee! I’ll be right back.” She rushed passed Blade, tripped on the shoes that were too big for her, and crashed into the cornerstone of the fireplace before he could reach out and break her fall.
As he lifted her, she inhaled a sharp breath. “Where are you hurt?” he asked as he sat her on the bed and knelt before her.
“Nowhere. I’m fine.”
“Stop being so stubborn.”
She held up her palm to show him a scrape from the stone. “See, no big deal. I’ll wash it and it will be fine.”
That wince was from more than a mere scrape and she was favoring her right side. He started to lift the hem of her blouse when she put her hand on his hand.
“Don’t.”
He cupped her chin. “I need to check for injuries.”
Hesitantly, she moved her arm away and let him lift the bottom of her blouse. Bruises covered her entire right side, from her ribs to her stomach. From yellow to deep purple and black. “Did I do this yesterday, when Liam’s men found us? When I pushed you down?”
“That’s from Drake, right before you rescued me.”
This was why she had such trouble walking. Not only from the wounds on her feet, but the beating Drake had given her. And it explained why she’d been so tired.
Anna quickly fisted the blouse in her hands and pulled the material down to hide the bruises.
“I need to see, Anna. All of it,” Blade said, his voice harsher than he wanted, but he needed to know what she’d been through, especially if there was a way of helping her heal.
With a stifled whimper, she released her hold and looked away as he lifted her blouse. Three marks, now an angry pink, traveled from under her left breast along her ribs toward her side. Claw marks.
The rage within him was reaching dangerous levels as tears pooled in her eyes. “Is there more?” he asked, attempting to keep his voice calm.
She gathered her hair and pulled it to the side as she turned around. As gently as he could, he eased the blouse half-way up her back. More claw marks, several sets in fact. All except one set had healed. The last set was an angry red amidst a field of light pink lines that crisscrossed her back. Recent, perhaps only hours before he’d freed her. Those animals had shredded her, over and over.
And he’d missed it. The damn cave had been too dark, and he’d been too focused on getting her the fuck away from Drake and the animals the alpha called shifters.
“Why?” he asked in a low voice, dumbfounded.
“I wouldn’t give him what he wanted. I offered to help work on the vaccine, but he wasn’t interested.”
“I’m sorry, Anna, but I have to ask. The shifter I found in the cell attacking you. . . How many others. . .” Hell, he couldn’t say the words, ask her to count how many times she’d been sexually assaulted. He didn’t want to dredge up those memories for her, but there had to be some accountability. Damien needed to know what was going on in Drake’s pack.
“No one r-raped me. Drake left strict orders I wasn’t to be touched. He even made a point of saying that any male he smelled on me would suffer a death that would result in limbs being scattered across the four corners of his territory. My first week there, a shifter entered, tried to. . . tried to. . .”
He rubbed the middle of her back lightly without saying a word as she took a deep breath.
“Drake killed him. Followed through on his threat, or so I learned from the guards. Told them it’s what happened to shifters who didn’t obey his rules. B-but I th-think there was more to it,” she said, shaking again. “He treated me like Ibelongedto him.”
With her every word, Blade’s wolf clawed at him from within. His wolf was desperate for a chance to escape and cause real damage, preferably in the direction of Drake’s pack. Blade couldn’t risk releasing his wolf here to rage, not near Anna, and certainly not if there was any chance his wolf would take off and leave her alone and unguarded. With a heavy hand, followed by a yelp from his wolf, Blade forced his wolf down.
Lightly, Blade ran his fingers over the welts and scars on his sweet Anna. “Then who did this, Drake?”
“There were guards who lost family to the virus. They wanted me to feel their pain. That’s what they said. They always waited until after Drake left. He’d come once a week. The bruises would heal before he returned. Most anyhow. The guards tended to strike my back, knowing I’d never turn around in Drake’s presence, make myself even more vulnerable to him.”
“What the hell did Drake want from you?” He couldn’t help it. He was losing his patience. The more he heard, the more he was tempted to release his wolf. But he wouldn’t risk Anna.
“Submission. An apology.” She swallowed. “He wanted me toshift.”
“Shift? That’s crazy. He should have been able to smell that you’re human.”
“Not everyone has your big nose,” she said, tilting her head to the side to grant him a sly look.
